Free In the Sewers of Lvov by Robert Marshall

Peltwa rushing past her feet. They edged away from the shaft and away from the terror of the exterminations.
    Her first impression was of the terrible level of noise. The thundering river, coupled with the screams of those carried away in its current. Her instinct was to escape, to return to the air above, to the light. But there was Margulies almost dragging her along the ledge. The most shocking aspect of this new environment, the one which most disorientated Klara, was the crush of bodies: ‘So many people – pushing, screaming, yelling to each other.’
    The ledge was teaming with scores of people. Some were huddled in small groups, some were sliding along the wall, others were rushing – running and colliding with one another. Screams echoed up and down the chamber until the stones seemed to be vibrating with the noise. Where had they all come from? Most of them had lifted manholes in the street above and had found the simplest way down. They were doing the same thing that had happened at Warsaw and Lubin. Using the sewers as the most obvious escape out, now that the ghetto was an inferno. It was pointless. The Germans had already posted men at every manhole in the city, waiting for anyone to emerge. There would be no escape. Klara felt swamped by the panic.
    ‘Stay by the wall,’ Margulies shouted at the people around him. ‘Don’t run!’ But it was useless.
    The chamber was also filled with torches and candles which created a terrifying, instant tableau of tortured faces captured in momentary flashes of light. Margulies remembered the vain attempts to help those in the water: ‘Every so often you heard a splash as someone slipped off the edge into the water. You heard them scream, but it was too late. We had two ropes and I threw each one to someone in the water. But the current was too fast, it just took the rope.’ They were simply swept away by the torrent, and the tug on the rope forced them to let go. The sides were smooth with slime and offered virtually no purchase. It was soonapparent that once someone was in the water, there was nothing you could do.
    On and on came the waves of bodies along the ledge, while Margulies and Klara fought against the tide. Out of the midst walked Mr Katz. Everyone knew him, he had once owned a fashionable shoe shop on the Teodor Platz, not far from the opera house. Out of his pocket he took a white handkerchief, which he held out before him.
    ‘Save me. Save me.’
    Margulies watched him. ‘What can I do?’
    Katz opened the handkerchief and, in the occasional flashes of light, was the unmistakable glint of diamonds.
    ‘Save me. Please,’ he cried as he proffered the handkerchief before him. ‘Take me with, take me with …!’
    ‘Where can I take you with …?’
    Suddenly Katz lunged forward, then sideways as someone rushed past. Katz and the diamonds disappeared. His cries and thrashing in the water continued for a moment, but were soon lost in the noise.
    The chamber resounded with screams. It was bedlam and there seemed to be no way to defuse the panic and the forward surge of the mass. The people had no idea where they were going, just forward, forward. For some, the waters were a form of escape and they leapt willingly into the river, to be carried away by the current. Others stopped and sat quietly on the bank and simply pushed themselves into the dark waters. Less than a kilometre down the tunnel they would emerge into the moonlight. If they had not already drowned, they would be picked off by the soldiers posted at the mouth of the Peltwa armed with powerful lights and sub-machine-guns.
    When Paulina Chiger stepped into the chamber she was horrified. She was trapped on the narrow ledge finding it impossible to stand still and take everything in.
    ‘I had two bags, which I gave to Kuba. He put them down on the ledge and they slipped straight into the river. All my packing, gone straight away. I had hold of the two children besideme. We had to cling on to